For Women In Korean Pop, 'Making It' Can Mean A Makeover

"Seoul is the home of Korean pop music, or K-pop, which is quickly becoming one of Korea's biggest exports. It's a multibillion dollar industry that, for the last decade, has been dominated by girl groups."

"Management agencies churn out groups that look alike and embody a girlish, doe-eyed innocence. But critics say there's a dark side to the bubblegum images being spread around the world."

"The industry is especially hard on Korean women. Park Boram, considered a classic K-pop success story, is in many ways a poster child for the K-pop ideal. She was a teenage girl who went through various contortions to become what she is today. Her four-year training process involved learning to dance, sing, and act. It also involved modifying her appearance. She changed her hair, her face and, most notably, her body, dropping 66 pounds."

Forgive Us For So Much Cruelty': Pope Francis Visits Site Of Auschwitz Death Camp

"Pope Francis visited the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz on Friday, keeping a near-total silence to honor the more than 1 million people — almost all of them Jews — who were systematically killed there during World War II."

"He said a few quiet words to a group of survivors of the concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, and wrote the following message in Spanish: 'Lord, have mercy on your people. Lord, forgive us for so much cruelty.'"

"The visit was intended to be quiet and somber. He told the media before arriving that he 'would like to go to that place of horror without speeches, without crowds,' as The New York Times reported. He wanted to go 'alone, enter pray. ... And may the Lord give me the grace to cry.'"

"As reporters looked on, the pope passed alone under the infamous sign at the camp entrance that bears the words 'Arbeit Macht Frei,' or 'Work Sets You Free."

Thirsty New Study Links Good Hydration To Slimmer Waistlines

"A quick consultation with Dr. Google will tell you that drinking lots of water — and staying well-hydrated — can help you lose weight."

"But is there any truth to this? A new study published in the Annals of Family Medicine adds to the evidence that hydration may play a role in weight management."

"'What we found was that people who were inadequately hydrated had increased odds of being obese,' says study author Tammy Chang of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan."

"The study was based on data collected by a federal health survey, in which researchers had documented weight and height of participants. They also conducted urine tests to establish an objective measure of participants' level of hydration."

As Bagged Salad Kits Boom, Americans Eat More Greens

"Cleaning a freshly picked head of lettuce can be an act of mindfulness, your worries melting away as you wash and tear each leaf. And the payoff, along with the beautiful summer salad, is a feeling of virtuous accomplishment."

"But if you're a busy working parent, the rip-and-release salad kit in a bag can take some hassle out of dinner prep."

"As a culture, it's clear which direction we're headed. Per capita sales of fresh iceberg lettuce have fallen by half over the past 25 years, but there's been a boom in bagged greens and salad kits, sales of which are projected to reach $7 billion a year."

"According to the Nielsen Perishables Group, which tracks such things, Americans bought twice as many bags of packaged salads as heads of lettuce last year. And over the past five years, sales of bagged lettuce have been increasing by 6.5 percent every year. Sales of intact lettuce heads have remained flat."

A Government Sponsored Disaster: Florida Asks For Federal Help With Toxic Algae

"About a hundred miles north of Miami on the Atlantic Coast, the town of Stuart is a picturesque waterfront community — with homes, restaurants and parks overlooking the St. Lucie Estuary. But in many areas now, when you approach the water, the first thing you notice is the smell."

'There's no way to describe it', says John Skinner, a boat salesman in Stuart."

"But he still tries. 'I would say hundreds of dead animals that have been baking in the sun for weeks.'"

"The cause of the foul smell is a massive algae bloom that has affected beaches and fishing in communities along the St. Lucie River. The blue-green algae is especially worrisome because it can be toxic and harmful to people and animals that come into contact with it."

"In Stuart, Skinner says a thick layer of the blue-green algae began accumulating on the water in the marina last month. It's now a couple of inches thick in some areas — a greenish muck that coats the docks and the boats. He says the muck is hurting his sales."

For the First Time, Police Used A Bomb Robot To Kill

"After sniper fire struck 12 police officers at a rally in downtown Dallas, killing five, police cornered a single suspect in a parking garage. After a prolonged exchange of gunfire and a five-hour-long standoff, police made what experts say was an unprecedented decision: to send in a police robot, jury-rigged with a bomb."

"'We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was,' Dallas Police Chief David Brown told a news conference Friday. 'Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger. The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb.'"

"At a Friday evening press conference, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings revealed that police used a common plastic explosive known as C4."

"'The same automated robot equipment used to defuse bombs was used to place C4 in place and to detonate that,' Rawlings said."

"This was a man that we gave plenty of options to to give himself up peacefully and we spent a lot of time talking. He had a choice to come out and we would not harm, or stay in and we would. He picked the latter."

Synthetic Stingray may Lead To A Better Artificial Heart

"Scientists have created a synthetic stingray that's propelled by living muscle cells and controlled by light, a team reports Thursday in the journal Science."

"And it should be possible to build an artificial heart using some of the same techniques, the researchers say."

"'I want to build an artificial heart, but you're not going to go from zero to a whole heart overnight,' says Kit Parker, a bioengineer and physicist at Harvard University's Wyss Institute. 'This is a training exercise.'"

Previous artificial hearts have been versions of mechanical pumps. An artificial heart made from living muscle cells would behave more like a natural heart, Parker says, and would be able to grow and change over time.

"The heart's built the way it is for a reason," he says. "And we're trying to replicate as much of that function as we possibly can."

After Medical Marijuana Legalized, Medicare Prescriptions Drop For Many Drugs

"Prescription drug prices continue to climb, putting the pinch on consumers. Some older Americans appear to be seeking an alternative to mainstream medicines that has become easier to get legally in many parts of the country."

"Research published Wednesday found that states that legalized medical marijuana — which is sometimes recommended for symptoms like chronic pain, anxiety or depression — saw declines in the number of Medicare prescriptions for drugs used to treat those conditions and a dip in spending by Medicare Part D, which covers the cost on prescription medications."

"Because the prescriptions for drugs like opioid painkillers and antidepressants — and associated Medicare spending on those drugs — fell in states where marijuana could feasibly be used as a replacement, the researchers said it appears likely legalization led to a drop in prescriptions. That point, they said, is strengthened because prescriptions didn't drop for medicines such as blood-thinners, for which marijuana isn't an alternative."

A Brief History of America's Middle Class

"'The middle class is disappearing' has been a standard line during this election cycle. As it turns out, it's not wrong."

"Last year was the first recorded year that middle-income families no longer made up the majority in America, according to the Pew Research Center. What this actually means economically is a mixed bag, but 'middle class' in the U.S. has historically stood for something less concrete: the American dream."

"Between now and the election, All Things Considered will be looking at what it means to be middle class in America today."

The Declaration of Independence 240 Years Later

"Twenty-eight years ago, Morning Edition launched what has become an Independence Day tradition: hosts, reporters, newscasters and commentators reading the Declaration of Independence."

"It was on this date 240 years ago that church bells rang out over Philadelphia, as the Continental Congress adopted Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence."

"Below is the original text of the Declaration, alongside photos of the NPR staff members and contributors who performed the reading."

Juno Space Probe Is Set To Enter Jupiter's Orbit On Monday

"After a five-year journey through the solar system, NASA's $1.1 billion Juno mission is set to begin its orbit around Jupiter on Monday. But for the probe to be captured by the giant planet's gravity and go into the desired orbit, Juno's main engine has to fire for 35 minutes."

"'We've only got one shot,' says Guy Beutelschies, director of space exploration systems at Lockheed Martin, the company that built and operates Juno. 'If we miss this flyby, we're assuming the mission's over.'"

"That means for about 35 minutes Monday, scores of scientists and engineers will be biting their nails, crossing their fingers and staring at computer display screens, hoping the decades of work to design, build and launch this ambitious mission won't have been in vain."

"Assuming all goes smoothly, Juno will provide a lot answers to questions about Jupiter. Although it's well-known that the gas giant is made up primarily of hydrogen and helium gas, the planet's core remains mysterious."

The People Vs. Coloring Books: The Verdict Is In

"So what's up with the crayons? Everywhere you go lately — the bookstore, Starbucks — even here at NPR — I see grown men and women sitting around coloring."

"Every time, this takes me back to rainy childhood days on the living room floor: A robot. A mosaic of geometric houses. A flowery design pattern."

"Clearly, I've stumbled upon the national craze for adult coloring books."

"My first question was: Really?"

"Yup. There are thousands of titles now for every adult coloring book you could imagine, and then some. According to jillions of websites, coloring promotes mindfulness and reduces stress for grown-ups."

"Why do people like coloring so much? Do coloring books have any educational value? Do they squash creativity like a bug or, as some sites suggest, promote the development of fine motor skills?"

Non-Stop Flight: How the Frigatebird Can Soar For Months Without Stopping

"Frigatebirds, seagoing fliers with a 6-foot wingspan, can stay aloft for weeks at a time, a new study has found. The results paint an astonishing picture of the bird's life, much of which is spent soaring inside the clouds."

"Frigatebirds are unique among aquatic birds. Their feathers are not waterproof, so they can't rest on the waves. Males sport a vivid red pouch along their throats that they inflate when trying to attract females. They're known for stealing food from other seabirds."

"Since the frigatebird spends most of its life at sea, its habits outside of when it breeds on land aren't well-known — until researchers started tracking them around the Indian Ocean. What the researchers discovered is that the birds' flying ability almost defies belief."

"Ornithologist Henri Weimerskirch put satellite tags on a couple of dozen frigatebirds, as well as instruments that measured body functions such as heart rate. When the data started to come in, he could hardly believe how high the birds flew."

Has Physics Gotten Something Really Important Really Wrong?

1. "There is only one universe. For lots of folks, this might seem like a no-brainer. The "uni" in universe is supposed to mean "everything there is." Over the last few decades, however, multiverse cosmologies have gained acceptance via both inflationary Big Bang models and the "landscape" of string theory, which appears to predict 10500 possible universes. Unger and Smolin push back against these developments saying the proper field of study for cosmology is the one universe to which we have access. As Unger puts it: "We have reason to believe in the existence of only one universe at a time, the universe in which we find ourselves. Nothing science has discovered up to now justifies the belief that our universe is only one of many... The multiplication of universes in contemporary cosmology ... has been the outcome of an attempt to convert ... an explanatory failure into an explanatory success."
2. "Time is real. This might also fall into the "duh" category for people unfamiliar with the current frontiers of theoretical physics. But there were some good reasons why some physicists began thinking time might not be fundamental to reality. Instead, they began to explore how time might be emergent. That would mean time comes out of some deeper level of structure that exists entirely without anything like duration, past or future. But for Unger and Smolin, denying the reality of time allows physicists to skirt the nature of change on its deepest level."
3. "Mathematics is selectively real. We physicists love our equations. They are so powerful that we often become convinced they are real in themselves. It is that way that we become platonists making mathematics a kind of skeleton on which the flesh of the world is hung. But for Unger and Smolin, this reification of mathematics can lead physicists into dangerous territory where mathematical "beauty" and "elegance" get substituted for real information about the real world. As they put it: "Our mathematical inventions offer us no shortcut to timeless truth... They never replace the work of scientific discovery and of imagination. The effectiveness of mathematics in natural science is reasonable because it is limited and relative."

Welcome To Mongolia's New Postal System: An Atlas of Random Words

"It is tough to be a postman in Mongolia."

"The country is among the world's most sparsely populated — twice the size of Texas with about one-tenth the state's population of about 27 million. Its roads, even in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, often lack well-known names, making navigation difficult and street addresses unreliable. To make matters even more complicated, about a quarter of the country's residents are nomadic, with no permanent homes."

"All of that means it can often be incredibly challenging for the Mongol Post to locate people."

"Things are looking up, though. The Mongolian government has partnered with a British startup called What3Words to overhaul its postal and address systems. Now, instead of an address — like, say, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. — each 9-square-meter plot in Mongolia will receive its own three-word identifier."

Scientists Say They've Unearthed A Completely New Kind of Meteorite

"Scientists say that in a Swedish quarry, they've uncovered a meteorite unlike any other documented on the planet."

"Its chemical makeup is unique among the 50,000 meteorites known on Earth, as Birger Schmitz of Sweden's Lund University tells The Two-Way. 'This does not resemble anything ... even if we look at the big types that exist today and look at the broad ranges, this one falls completely outside of everything,' he says."

"What's more, the 'mysterious object,' which is about the size of a tennis ball, could 'lead to a better understanding of possible large-scale astronomical perturbations affecting both Earth and the solar system,' the scientists wrote in a newly published paper in Nature Communications."

"But before we get to those lofty heights — this story actually begins in a trash pile."

Wherefore Art Thou Romeo? Well, He Doesn't Have To Be

"Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet has defined tragic young love for centuries: Boy and girl from feuding families fall in love. Boy slays the girl's cousin for killing his friend in a duel. Girl swallows a sleeping potion. Boy thinks she's dead. Boy swallows poison. Girl wakes, sees boy dead, and stabs herself. They're both really dead. Families mourn and reconcile."

"But what if it didn't have to be that way? In his new Romeo and/or Juliet, author and cartoonist Ryan North has set up the story so a reader can make choices in the plot— veeeeeery different choices than Shakespeare's 'star cross'd lovers.' North tells NPR's Scott Simon he calls it a chooseable path book, "meaning the reader is in charge of what happens. So you'll reach many points in the story where the book will say, okay, you're playing as Juliet, now, if you want Juliet to kiss Romeo, turn to this page, but if you want Juliet to slap him across the face, go to this page instead."

Scientist Stephon Alexander: 'Infinite Possibilities' Unite Jazz and Physics

"Stephon Alexander didn't always love music. When he turned 8, his grandmother, who was from Trinidad, forced him to take piano lessons in the Bronx. His teacher was, in a word, strict. 'It felt like a military exercise to rob me of my childhood,' Alexander recalls."

"Several years went by like that. Until one day when Alexander's dad brought home an alto sax he found at a garage sale. 'That became my toy. Music no longer for me was this regimented tedium,' he says."

"Alexander blasted away in the attic. He got good. In the 8th grade, his band teacher — who played the jazz scene by night — offered to help him get into the most prestigious music school in New York City. But he turned it down. 'Because I wanted my music to be for fun,' Alexander says. 'I didn't want it to become a job.'"

"And he never told his grandmother. Later on, in high school, Alexander discovered the subject that would become his career. Physics. He calls it the study of, 'How the smallest things inform the largest things in our universe.'"

Fossils Suggest That Island Life Shrank Our Hobbit Relatives

"It's easy to think that evolution led inevitably to modern humans, the cleverest of apes. But there were some strange excursions along the way. Take, for example, the Hobbits."

"That's the nickname for a 3-foot-tall human relative that once lived in what is now Indonesia. A new discovery suggests that it was island life that created this dainty creature."

"Anthropologists first found the bones of the Hobbits in 2004 on the Indonesian island of Flores. Their scientific name is Homo floresiensis."

"They were chimp-size, with tiny brains and long arms, but they had stone tools and teeth much like ours. They lived about 60,000 years ago. Who were they? One idea had it that larger human ancestors from Africa — likely Homo erectus — ended up on this island. Then they shrank, because on islands, animals sometimes evolve to become smaller. But up to that point, there was no evidence that this 'island dwarfism' applied to human ancestors, and people had a hard time accepting it."

This Is How Much Celebrities Get Paid To Endorse Soda and Unhealthy Food

"Imagine getting paid an estimated $6 million for your involvement in this three-word jingle: "I'm Lovin' It." Yep, Justin Timberlake inked a lucrative deal with McDonald's. (Guess you could say he wants you to "buy buy buy.")"

"Or how about earning an estimated $50 million to promote Pepsi products?That's the endorsement deal that megastar Beyonce signed up for back in 2012."

"A new study published in the journal Pediatrics describes the lucrative endorsement deals of 65 music celebrities — including Britney Spears, Maroon 5, Timberlake and other stars popular with teens and young adults. These celebrities promoted 57 different food and beverage brands (see chart), ranging from soda to energy drinks to pizza, Pop-Tarts and candy."